D—G [George Daniels], ‘Remarks’ on A Tale of Mystery

A Tale of Mystery is not among the worst melodrames that have passed under our review. It is sufficiently interesting and terrible. The story is, a brother conspiring against the life of a brother. The author has been merciful with respect to diablerie. The tragic monotony of this piece is relieved by the introduction of a garrulous old domestic, excellently performed by Mrs. Davenport; and an honest, compassionate miller, equally well sustained by Mr. Blanchard. The scene where Michelli’s involuntary kindness works upon the assassin Romaldi, is powerfully conceived. The author is Mr. Thomas Holcroft, a man sufficiently notorious as a political character, and of whom we shall have occasion to speak further, when we come to a work better worthy of his genius than A Tale of Mystery.